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The arrests in February 2024 were the largest single-day bribery
takedown in the history of the U.S. Justice Department,
prosecutors said, and targted current and former employees of
the New York City Housing Authority, many of them former
supervisors.
“All 70 charged defendants have now been convicted," U.S.
Attorney Jay Clayton said in a release, "for attempting to
criminally leverage the contracting process of work for
affordable housing for New Yorkers to line their own pockets.”
The defendants generally demanded between 10% and 20% of a
contract’s value, which typically ranged from $500 and $2,000,
according to the release.
The housing authority workers pocketed over $2.1 million from
bribes paid by companies that received $15 million in no-bid
contracts, said Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber of the city’s
Department of Investigation.
The city's huge and aging public housing system is the largest
in the nation, home to one in 17 New Yorkers in 335 developments
citywide. Tenants have complained for decades about dangerous or
unsanitary conditions, including rodents, mold, and heat and hot
water outages.
Of the 70 individuals charged in the bribery case, three
defendants were convicted at trial, 56 pleaded guilty to felony
charges and 11 pleaded guilty to misdemeanor offenses,
prosecutors said. The charges included bribery, fraud and
extortion.
The housing authority known as NYCHA receives over $1.5 billion
in federal funding each year.
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